We’re interested to hear your opinions on a topic which has been touched on quite a lot recently – digital downloads. With the advent of virtual stores like the PlayStation Store, times are changing – if you want to check out a new game you no longer need to buy a magazine with a demo disc, you just download it off the store for free.

We’re seeing mini games such as Super Stardust HD that wouldn’t have been economically viable to distribute before being able to use an online store. Soon, the barrier between retail and downloadable games will be broken down further with the release of Warhawk and SOCOM: Confrontation – both of which are being released as a download on the store and in retail on Blu-ray disc.

Would you prefer to download all your games and keep a digital copy – or are you a fan of retail disc based versions? Do you think it’s unfair on the high street retailers to switch to digital distribution? What do you like / dislike about digital distribution?

We look forward to hearing your points.

How does Gaming affect who we are?
What effect does gaming have on who we are? I’m not asking about your “Immortal Soul”, but rather wondering how what we do in virtual worlds affect who we are in the real world. While all of us are biased, including myself, this is a question we honestly need to ask ourselves, without being afraid of the answer, instead of pretending the question doesn’t exist or the answer is “obviously none”.
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This is slightly late, as the show came out at the end of last week, but if anyone is interested in the life of a games developer they could do a lot worse than checking out the Full Moon podcast from Insomniac Games, who you would know better as the developers of Resistance: Fall of Man and the upcoming Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction. As well as news on both of those titles, they’ve got an interview with Evan Wells of Naughty Dog studios about the upcoming Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, which is well worth a listen, as this really seems to be a title which is making people sit up and pay attention.

While doing the podcast thing, there’s a PS3 podcast around, brought to you by Joystiq–affiliates PS3 fanboy. They’ve only been going for a few episodes, so any downloads and feedback would be appreciated I’m sure.

Other general gaming podcasts you might want to have a look at are the CAGcast from cheapassgamer.com, who are currently experimenting with live shows with varying success, but it’s always worth a listen. Show host CheapyD has a voice which reminds me of a cartoon character, but I can’t place it exactly - it’s nearly like Top Cat but not quite. Answers on a postcard please…

For some furious debate you might want to have a listen to Unclegamer radio from Unclegamer.com. All of the above shows normally weigh in at over an hour and a half in length, so you may need to schedcule in some time to listen to them all.

Finally, but by no means least, you may want to pay a visit to http://www.red-rant.com/. Having already put together a special Three Speech podcast, we are currently in the process of creating another… Watch this space.

Any other UK games podcasts out there? Let us know..

Following on from the recent conflict between the Church of England and the inclusion of a digital representation of Manchester cathedral in Resistance: Fall of Man, it’s probably worth looking at the issues surrounding using real-life locations in games. As Sony and the Church are in talks to resolve this one, I won’t comment on this particular instance, but as luck would have it there have been more than enough examples of gaming coming into contact with the real-life settings for their games. For example in the last year we’ve seen:

1) Rainbow Six: Vegas was criticised for featuring Las Vegas in the game. The mayor of Vegas Oscar Goodman said that the whole game was “based on a false premise”

2) Another Ubisoft title and another mayor clash as the mayor of Juarez, Mexico objects to most of GRAW 2 being set in the town.

3) Of course, Rockstar Games managed to draw the attention of New York’s authorities over the location for GTA: IV, even though it’s supposedly set in fictional Liberty City. It didn’t help that the trailer for the game featured photo-realistic representations of New York landmarks like the Chrysler building. The New York authorities issued a statement saying that GTA IV in New York would be like setting “Halo in Disneyland”.

4) A student was suspended from an American school because he made and distributed a Counterstrike map based on the school premises. Although he made the map a long time before the Virginia Tech shooting and with seemingly no intention of any violence, the two events were linked and he was eventually removed from the school and forbidden from graduating.
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This one’s from American-based Three Speech regular and industry insider Anthony Hanses…

Like many of those who are likely reading this now, I grew up as a gamer. I was born, raised, and obtained my lifeblood through video games and the industry. While not as old as many in the industry, I still remember programming little games on the Commodore64, tweaking my autoexec.bat and config.sys for hours on end to get games like Dune2 and the old SSI games running right. I remember hating it when Command & Conquer moved to Windows 95 because it lost its cool install animation. I remember more oddities about the gaming industry than most people my age, but less than some of my best friends in the industry.

I have lived through the fall of two greats who I thought were invincible and recently witnessed the possible return of one of them. I have seen franchises I once loved get abused and destroyed only to be replaced from new and (in a lot of ways) better franchises. I have participated in more gaming forums than most casual gamers know exist, and moderated at more than my fair share, I even run my own gaming forum now.

Throughout all of this I have heard the same things over, and over, and over, and over. Statements like…

· Gaming will rot your brain!

· Why don’t you play outside more?

· What are games really teaching out kids?

· It’s not like you learn anything from games!

· Doesn’t it bother you killing things all the time in games?

· I wish there were games that didn’t involve fighting!

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